Two-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the championships with injury.
The No.2 seed, on course for a calendar Grand Slam, was due to face Nick Kyrgios in a blockbuster men’s semi-final on Friday, but has announced his withdrawal due to an abdominal tear. The withdrawal means Kyrgios will appear in his first Grand Slam final on Sunday.
Rafael Nadal held a press conference late on Thursday evening at the All England Club, revealing it was an extremely difficult choice for the benefit of his health and happiness.
“I was thinking during the whole day about the decision to make,” Rafael Nadal said.
“I think it doesn’t make sense to go on. Even if I tried a lot of times during my career to keep going under very tough circumstances, in that one I think it’s obvious that if I keep going, the injury will get worse and worse. That’s the thing that I can say now. I feel very sad to say that, it’s a very tough one.”
“I had some issues in abdominals since a week, but more or less we were able to control it. But yesterday was the worst day. Honestly, during the week I did tests to see how things [would] evolve,” continued the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
“Yesterday in the game that I was serving 3-1 to 3-2 (first set), I think was the moment that I start to feel the things were going worse. Then serving, if I was not wrong, 4-3 the thing starts to be much worse.
“It’s obvious that yesterday after the match this very small thing that I had days ago, increased to a bigger thing.”
“I had some issues in abdominals since a week, but more or less we were able to control it. But yesterday was the worst day. Honestly, during the week I did tests to see how things [would] evolve,” the Spaniard added.
“Yesterday in the game that I was serving 3-1 to 3-2 (first set), I think was the moment that I start to feel the things were going worse. Then serving, if I was not wrong, 4-3 the thing starts to be much worse.
“It’s obvious that yesterday after the match this very small thing that I had days ago, increased to a bigger thing.”
“Honestly, Australia was not an issue. I didn’t have many problems during the tournament. But I came back from a long period of injury.
“Roland-Garros was very demanding, mentally especially and physically. But after that, things were going better. After how tough was Roland-Garros, just the fact that I was here shows how important is this tournament for me and how much I wanted to play here.”
“I never thought about the calendar Slam. I thought about my daily happiness and my daily work. Just play for the things that I really feel like,” Nadal said.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club would like to extend our sympathies to @RafaelNadal #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/EpLvyyQEKV
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 7, 2022
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